Fifth CL place almost gone
Premier League has a bad European Cup week
April 19, 2024, 8:42 a.m
The Bundesliga is very close to winning a fifth Champions League starting place for the coming season: Because the Premier League clubs are being eliminated from the European competitions in large numbers and the German teams are advancing as a unit.
Thanks to the successes of the German teams in this European Cup week, the Bundesliga has the best chance of securing an additional starting place in the coming Champions League season. In the UEFA rankings for the current season, Germany is in second place with 17,929 points and still has the three teams Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen in the race.
On the other hand, pursuers England (17,375) had a bad week in the European competitions: Manchester City and Arsenal FC were eliminated from the Champions League, West Ham United and Liverpool FC missed the semi-finals of the Europa League. Only Aston Villa can collect points for England in the Conference League.
Even if Villa wins all of their remaining games and thus the Conference League title, three points from the German clubs (i.e. three draws or one win and one draw) are enough to stay ahead of England. At least theoretically, however, France, which is still in the race with Paris St. Germain (CL) and Olympique Marseille (EL), could still overtake the Bundesliga.
Italy (19,429) leads the European Football Union rankings and has already secured the additional spot on Thursday. At the end of the season, the top two nations in the rankings will receive an additional starting place for the coming season in the Champions League, when the premier class is increased from 32 to 36 teams as a result of a comprehensive reform.
Every win for a team brings two points for the ranking, a draw gets one and moving into the next round gets another point. These points are divided by the number of total starters in a country at the start of the season. Curious: If the Bundesliga actually gets fifth place and Borussia Dortmund completely unexpectedly wins the Champions League, but remains in fifth place in the Bundesliga until the end of the season, the sixth-placed team in the Bundesliga will also play in the premier class next season.